Monday, February 16, 2015

I Hate The Friggin' Desert (well, maybe)

I picked up Cousin Ann and we
headed out to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. This isn't what you
think of when you think Museum – it is more like a zoo or a
botanical garden. Keep in mind, my cousin Ann is 89 years old. I
asked her if she wanted a wheelchair or an electric scooter or a
stroller :-) and she said didn't need one, she was a good walker and
she was. Amazing how good she is at getting around.

What the Arizona Sonora Desert
Museum is, is a large open air showcase of Arizona flora and fauna.
We went into a hummingbird aviary, underground to watch animals that
were normally active at night sleeping, watched desert big horn sheep
bounce around on their rocks, watched an otter and a beaver swim
underwater and into a desert bird aviary. There was a docent in
front of the Bighorns and he had a ram's horn and skull that we could
cold. I don't know how those rams are able to keep their heads up in
polite society, the horns are so heavy. They must have incredible
neck muscles.

Ducks in the Desert?

Mrs. Desert Bighorn

When Ann got tired, we headed
back to the RV so she could meet Miko. I made her dinner (I'm slowly
learning to compensate for not having a microwave) and then I took
her home back over the mountain. Sunset was incredible as usual. On
the way back over the mountain, it was completely dark. The good
thing about that was that I couldn't see the drop offs and cliffs on
the side of the road.

When I got home, I had to take
Miko out for her nightly walk. It was pitch black out so I took my
little flashlight with me so I could see where the blacktop was so I
wouldn't fall off of the road again. Miko goes off to the side to do
her business, I go to pick it up. Miko is in the middle of the road
and has stopped dead in the middle. She won't move. I put the
flashlight on her and right on her chest, under her front leg is a
huge cactus clump, thorns and all. They have these cactus down here
called Teddy Bear Cholla. They are really pretty, they are soft and
really cuddly looking until you realize that they are covered with a
ton of nasty spines. They are also called Jumping Cactus because if
you brush against them, a large segment will attach itself to you and
cause untold pain. This is what Miko had attached to her. The
spines were embedded in her skin.

She lay down in the middle of the
road and I tried to pull the cactus out but every time I did, she
screamed. It was killing me to cause her this pain. Every time I
tried to pull a spine out, it would attach to me and I can tell you,
it was painful. Miko was so good, laying there in the middle of the
road hoping that I could help her. Because of where this cactus was,
there was no way she could walk.

I was beginning to lose it – I
couldn't get the cactus dislodged, we were in the middle of the
campground road in the dark. We were about 100 feet from the nearest
RV which just so happened to be the camp host. They had just rolled
into the campground that day, I don't think they had officially
started working yet. I told Miko to Stay (a task that we had hardly
worked on before) and ran over and started banging on their door, all
the while yelling at Miko to stay. The hosts opened their door, I
asked them to help, told them my dog had gotten into cholla and bring
tweezers. I ran back to Miko and bless her heart, she had not moved
at all. I can't tell you how proud I was of her.

The hosts came out and said that
they had just learned that day about how to get cholla out of fur.
You take a comb, put it next to the dog's skin and pop the cactus bud
off. I was a little skeptical because I had tried to pull the cactus
out already with my fingers and all it had done was cause Miko pain.
We had nothing left to lose, I couldn't pick Miko up to get her off
the road so I told them to go for it.

It was amazing how quickly that
cholla popped off of Miko. She did not yelp once and she laid still
for the whole operation. She lay there for a moment, then she got
up, shook herself and then she walked over to the host and started
licking his hands as though she was saying thank you. I felt around
in the area where the cactus had been and could not feel any more
stickers.

I cannot tell you how grateful I
am to these camp hosts. I don't know what we would have done if they
had not been there and also if they had not just learned what to do
in a situation like this. When I got back to the RV, I just grabbed
Miko and cried.

The desert is really pretty in a
sort of alien sort of way, but there are so many things out here that
will hurt you. Things to think about – does warm weather,
beautiful sunsets, lazy days outweigh vegetation that is out to get
you?

About Me

Retirement is grand!! I'm sorry I waited so long to get started on this phase of life. I used to travel all the time but then I got involved in the world of Icelandic Horses. That took up all of my time and money. I still have a couple of horses. I'm now trying to fit husband, horses and extended travels into the very limited 24 hours of the day. As so many others have said....how did I ever have time to work?